‘Heat­wave’ on the way from Spain at week­end

WHILE some of us are draw­ing up our Christ­mas lists, sum­mer is set to make a sur­prise reap­pear­ance.

Warm air is head­ing for our shores this week­end, mean­ing tem­per­a­tures could surge past 20c to dou­ble nor­mal Oc­to­ber lev­els. The mini-heat­wave is blow­ing in from south­ern Spain. But Man­cu­ni­ans shouldn’t pack away their coats be­cause next week gets off to a rough start.

The tail end of Hur­ri­cane Ophe­lia is ex­pected to reach Bri­tain on Mon­day, bring­ing strong winds, heavy rain and cooler tem­per­a­tures to the north west.

Fore­cast­ers have said this week­end will be mainly dry, although there could be some heavy rain around tea time to­day. To­mor­row, it will be dry and fine, while Sun­day is ex­pected to be even warmer but with cloudy skies.

Gra­hame Madge, spokesman for the Met Of­fice, said: “We have a plume of warm air that is com­ing across the UK. It will be more pro­nounced in south­ern Bri­tain but it will be get­ting quite north, too.

“Tem­per­a­tures will be in the 20s, or low 20s, across parts of the UK - get­ting warmer to­wards Sun­day.

“Satur­day gen­er­ally looks rea­son­ably fine for most.

“On Sun­day it will be­come in­creas­ingly cloudy, and there will be some stronger winds.”

The un­set­tled weather looks likely to con­tinue into Tues­day due to a sep­a­rate band of low pres­sure.